• Mature • Warm Hands, Cold Heart

[Zana]

16th Ymiden, 717

She looked entirely different.

Zana was sitting on her bed, the door wide open as Theo came to her room at the time they'd agreed. She wasn't working this trial, so she was wearing a long brown skirt and an openweave, therefore very revealing, long sleeved cream top. Her hair was loose and her face clean of make up; she was intently reading a book, her legs curled around themselves. All her attention was on the tome in front of her until she heard him, when she looked up and smiled. "Theo. Come in." Her room was neat and largely devoid of anything personal; a single small glass ornament in the shape of a bird sat on the window ledge and reflected the light. Other than that, there was a small bookcase, an easel by the window with a currently blank canvas on it and a pretty box which sat on her dressing table.

Unfurling her legs, Zana stood and walked over to him, and then kissed him deeply. There was no hesitation in that action and she stood close to him as she greeted him. It was important, she thought, that they did not create some kind of barrier between them whilst they worked out these abilities of hers and should they ignore any other aspect of their relationship then they ran the risk of it becoming more significant by its absence. So, she did as she would have done with any handler and leaned into his arms, burying her hands in his hair.

Yet, as much as she wanted to be clear that the consideration of their physical relationship was one aspect of their new partnership, it wasn't the most pressing one, so she pulled away from him, kicked the door shut and moved over to the bed, sitting cross legged and waiting for him to do the same. Then, she moved her hand and put it into his, interlacing her fingers with his. There was no doubt, she thought, he would quickly realize that physical contact was something which kept her on an even keel.

"I told you I wouldn't lie to you and then gave you half the details of something potentially huge." Her smile was good; it would fool almost anyone. He said that he was willing to try this out, work as her handler and to Zana that meant something. She knew that, considering his lack of experience, it might not mean the same to him but she had to act like it did, had to believe it did or she was dooming it before it began.

"My father's domains are wind, birds, vanity and greed. When he visited the whorehouse where my mother worked, he chose her and got her with child. My powers are around similar things but different. Breath, or air is one. Reflection is another and attachment the third." Zana fell quiet and let him think about that for a while. Then, she continued, her hand still held in his.

"I can make you feel any emotion. I have to blow, my breath on your skin. It might be your arm or anywhere." Looking at him, she considered that this was hard, she did not trust so easily and whilst it was easy to tell people how she was more powerful than them, admitting her weaknesses was much more difficult. Zana lifted her head and looked at him with a quizzical and slightly amused expression.

"I do the job I do because I enjoy it. I didn't tell you that. I do, genuinely. I don't need to fake anything, the act itself and all that wraps around it delights me. I feel so alive. Something I love and money for doing it? It's my dream job." Blue eyes regarded his and she explained, "Yet I could make you want me more than you have wanted anything, hate me or feel fury towards me. The price is that, when I do and for some time after, I feel nothing. Not a thing. I hate that, Theo, which makes it hard to handle and I need help." It was a strange price, but it was the reminder of mortality, she knew. "I suspect that I am difficult too when I have literally no feelings. So, then I need to fake it if I am working." Just being able to talk about these, about what she could do and what it cost her was going to help enormously, she knew. It would make her better at her job and that was the goal here.

"However, what I suggest that we focus on first is that I can... well, I can enhance or lessen any physical sensation you have. Pleasure, pain, things like that. But again, there are limits. It has to be something you are already feeling, at least a little and we need to be looking at each other in a mirror." As a whore's power, it was perfect and Zana smiled at him with an ironic twist of her lips. "I thought we could start with that and I could make you feel cold? It's warm, so it will end quickly and I'll warm you up. We just have to maintain eye contact in the mirror and you need..." She turned and reached for the iced drink she'd had brought in earlier.

Ice blue eyes regarded him and she smiled, not moving forward for the kiss to distract him this time, although her desire to do so was obvious. "If you want to just be the handler of a human whore, now is the time to stop, Theo. Things are about to get crazy." Yet, if he was the handler that he seemed to be, they could work together towards greatness and Zana truly hoped that he was.

Ledger Deductions

Item	Cost	Notes	TOTAL
Skirt x3	4gn 8sn 8cn	Brown, Cotton (1gn 6sn) White, Cotton (1gn 2sn)Blue, Cotton (2gn 0sn 8cn)	4gn 8sn 8cn
Blouse x 3	2gn 1sn 6cn	White, Cotton x 3 (various styles)	7gn 0sn 4cn
Cotton (3 yards)	7gn 2sn	For learning to sew.	14gn 2sn 4cn
Sewing Kit	6gn	as above	20gn 2sn 4cn
Artists Kit	19gn	Learning art	39gn 2sn 4cn
Nonfiction Book	10gn	Basic Artistic Techniques	49gn 2sn 4cn

She can kill with a smile, she can wound with her eyes.
She can ruin your faith with her casual lies

[Theo Nji'Ryn]

Theo had been on the job at the Lap of Luxury just one trial now, and since he'd been thrown into the deep end in more ways than one, he was already elbows deep in it. It wasn't just the unsettling revelation that one of the girls he'd been assigned was no ordinary girl at all. That on its own was more than enough. He just hadn't realized how much might be expected of him above and beyond the limited details that Peter had given him.

There was another girl who needed his attention. And Theo wouldn't exactly call her an easy keeper, though undeniably she was easy on the eyes. Just that morning he'd been handed a note sent by one of her regulars, a much older gentleman who seemed to like things that wandered well off the beaten path. At least so far as Theo was concerned. He hadn't wanted any actual physical contact, which seemed to come as no surprise to the man's favorite girl.

Instead of the usual there'd been a scene to set up, a scenario to arrange, furniture to move, and a bit player to hire. And naturally, when the good for nothing ingrate had failed to show, Theo risked an unhappy customer. Ultimately he'd ended playing the part himself, something that hadn't been at all part of the job description. If he hadn't exactly been pleased with the arrangement, Theo had made a decent showing, and when it was over the customer left much happier than he'd come in.

It had all taken more time than expected though and he was a couple bits late coming to Zana's room as they'd arranged. "Sorry I'm late," he said when he saw her, and she stepped into his arms for a thorough and all consuming kiss. He took the time to savor that, one hand curled round the nape of her neck, fingers tangled in her hair, the other in the small of her back. Her clothing didn't leave much to the imagination. In many ways, just one trial surrounded by so many women wearing little at all made it nothing new. But, it never got old and never would.

He followed her to the bed, sat down beside her and smiled a little when she took his hand. It was becoming more than apparent that physical touch beyond what was sexual was important to her. That too was new for Theo, and not the norm. That adjustment too would come with time.

She'd told him quite a lot the trial before, about what she could do, what her powers were. Though Theo had suspected even then that it was more than that. More nuanced. Of course he knew very little about the Immortal who was her father. He knew very little about any of them, given his general disinterest in religion and worship. But now, it was important that he understood her, which meant understanding some of the one who'd sired her.

When Zana told him again exactly what she could do, and as importantly how it affected her, he smiled when she suggested that she might not exactly be a treat while in the throes of feeling no empathy for others, or in fact nothing at all. "I was raised by a single mother in the Dust Quarter," Theo told her. "Have you been there?" Possibly not. It wasn't a place many decent women would go to had they the choice. "You don't survive the mean streets of the Dust Quarter by being thin skinned."

He could handle it, the revelation implied. It might also explain part of the reason why his initial response to her revelation of the trial before, hadn't been quite as diplomatic as might have otherwise. Nonetheless, he'd come, and he was willing to do what they needed to. His only preference was to begin in a way that meant he'd keep his wits about him. She seemed to have considered that already. "Cold?"

He agreed though, it would be a good place to start. The use of a mirror though was curious, unexpected and as he joined her in front of it, he asked, "Always a mirror?" Whichever the case, when she handed him the glass, he sniffed the contents, and took a swallow. Bourbon. Nice. "You've warned me already, and I've agreed anyway," he told her, looking back at her in the mirror. She could tell him what to expect all trial long and another after that. But until he experienced it for himself, explanations were just words and not much else.

[Zana]

16th Ymiden, 717

"I usually dislike tardiness," she whispered, held close against him and looking up into his eyes with unashamed desire in hers, "but I forgive you." Of course, she was looking into his eyes as much to see what color or colors they were in the midst of the kiss. His response to her was more than pleasing as far as Zana was concerned and, as his fingers tangled in the locks of her hair, Zana gasped with pleasure. Evidently, when she said that she enjoyed her job, she was not lying in the slightest.

It was with a real feeling of regret that she eventually stepped out of his arms. "You've had a difficult morning?" It was almost impossible to keep a secret in this place and the other girl who Theo handled had regaled them with the story as soon as she'd come back upstairs.

When she took his hand, he smiled but she wondered whether that was to hide discomfort. "I was born in a brothel, raised in the same one and I've worked as a prostitute for forty five arcs, give or take." She grinned slightly, perhaps even apologetically. "I tend towards tactile, especially with my handler. I always have. I can try and rein it in if it makes you uncomfortable?" If it did, then better they dealt with it now and if it did not, then he'd get used to it and that was fine.

No, she hadn't been to the Dust Quarter, she told him. In total, she had only been in Rharne sixteen trials and so really her experiences here were rather limited. She got the idea, though and it made sense. He'd been poor, probably all his childhood and was determined to do better for himself. It would explain why, when his careful control slipped, he could seem a little rough around the edges.

"For this ability, yes," always mirrors. She knelt on the bed behind him, looking over his shoulder at him in the mirror. "Reflective surfaces, anyhow. Always reflections." He drank the bourbon and Zana leaned forward, over him and tapped the glass. "Touch the ice cube. Just a fingertip."

As he did, she looked him in the eyes, reflected as they were in the dressing table vanity and she saw it. It was there as clear for her as his eyes were. She saw the cold, the ice which touched the tip of his finger and she washed him in it, like a wave crashing over him of icy, shivering cold. His temperature didn't actually drop, but his body would respond as though it had and the feeling was akin to being dropped in a frozen lake.

As the wave of physical sensation hit him, Zana gulped in air in the same sort of noise that she had made as he pulled her to him just moments before. She closed her eyes purposely and then turned away, grabbing a blanket she'd put ready and wrapping it around him. "Are you alright?"

Sweet as sugar, cold as ice
Hurt her once, she'll kill you twice

[Theo Nji'Ryn]

When Zana asked how difficult his morning had been, Theo wasn't fooled in spite of the innocent look on her face. He didn't think for a bit that she didn't know exactly how his trial had gone so far, ridiculous costume and all. It wasn't just the girl's clothing that bared most or as good as all. Among staff, there were no secrets in this place. "Peter neglected to inform me that I'd need to brush up on my acting skills," he'd told her dryly when they ended their embrace. Theo's eyes then slowly returned to their more characteristic blue, after having swirled with traces of copper and indigo.

"It doesn't make me uncomfortable," he told her when she explained her predisposition regarding touch. "I'm not accustomed to it. People don't touch much in the Dust Quarter except for obvious reasons." For the most part, close attachments had been reserved for family. But he didn't object, he told her, it was only a new way of being. He watched her in the mirror and the dark amber liquid in the glass was smooth going down, and also chilled. But not enough apparently for what she had in mind.

He smiled at her, one brow lifted slightly and dipped a finger into the drink, toying with an ice cube. The smile didn't last long however. Whatever it was she did caused a chill to come over him so quickly that his whole body trembled from it. It was a shock that took his breath away. His body temperature might not have dropped, but his mind was convinced it had. If there was one thing Theo had understood already, it was that when it came to belief and experience, perception was reality.

So even had he realized that his body temperature had not changed, there'd be no convincing his mind of it. The cold was extreme and enough to rattle his teeth. And because it was perception, the blanket ought not have worked at all when she wrapped it round his shoulders. And it didn't, much, because it might as well have been a light sheet in the middle of a blizzard. Still, because something wrapped round the shoulders on an ordinary trial ought to ward off some of the cold, in Theo's mind it did.

He still had his wits about him however and smiled, though it was a tight one against a cold that had rattled his teeth. "I'm alright," he told Zana. But too much, he told her, too fast. And by the way, when did it abate? He'd wonder then, afterwards, if it was possible to refine the effect. More subtle, like a cool front creeping in. Maybe isolate it to one part of the body...perhaps like a chill up the back of the neck or spine? "Are you alright?" Theo asked, wondering how using the ability had impacted her.

[Zana]

16th Ymiden, 717

In terms of her predisposition for tactile contact, especially with him, or whoever was in his role, Zana nodded and said no more. He said it didn't make him uncomfortable, so she took him at his word. Attachments, of the professional kind, were important to her; they were one of her domains and from the first that she could remember the importance of building trust between a handler and his girl was something she'd known, something she'd been taught. He was likely to be the only person she would be that tactile with, whilst he was in the role.

Once she had used her ability on him, though, Zana focused on just warming him. Having wrapped him in a blanket, she moved so that she wasn't behind him and purposely placed herself so her back was to the mirror and she was looking in his eyes, down on her haunches in front of him. After all, he was the fourth man who had claimed he would be her handler, abilities and all, but if he didn't back off at this point, he'd be the first to follow through. She wrapped her arms around him as she pulled the blanket tight around him, rubbing his arms rather like a mother would to a child. Yet, when he asked how long it lasted, Zana looked at him and smiled, the answer in her expression before she spoke

"The first time I used it, it was on my handler, Jaq. We didn't consider that he'd need to keep his wits about him, so it was both messy and over with quickly. He passed out." She shrugged slightly, a frown tugging her features as she thought about it. "He'd been my handler for eleven arcs at that point. He passed me on to someone else the next trial. Tor'in. He wouldn't work with my abilities, so I didn't use them. That was the first time I've used it since. So, I don't know." It was already passing, though, he could feel it. As his body realized that it wasn't experiencing such a dip in temperature, it was once again returning to normal.

Too much? Too much, too fast? She nodded her head. "I understand. Do you want to ask Peter to get someone else to handle me, or just not use them?" Then, however, he started talking about refining the effect and Zana frowned. He wasn't passing her on? Then what did too much, too fast mean? She considered it and comprehension dawned. "You mean the feeling itself? I didn't want to risk using the cold you were experiencing inside you, because you'd swallowed the bourbon. I've never done that, I don't know if it would cause damage."

When he asked her if she was alright, Zana nodded. "I feel fine. When I used it with Jaq, I was so panic-stricken I didn't really consider. This was the last ability to manifest and my mother had already died." Sara had helped her, she explained, with the other two and Zana understood those a lot better. But, genuinely, she felt fine and no ill effects at all.

"I asked you to touch the ice cube because I see it. The sensation. I could have used the cool of the glass, I suppose. It isn't made stronger or weaker by what you're feeling, the impact would have been the same. I just... " Concentrating, Zana remembered the experience, considered it. "It's pleasurable. I didn't realize that." With a mischievous grin she added, "at least one of us enjoyed it." Her expression was quickly more serious, though, as she continued. "It's like, I take the cold from one spot and reflect it back and forth in a series of mirrors, but each time magnified. Your sensation and mine. I can try and .. change the angle, so it bounces fewer times?"

Zana had been fully expecting him to cut his losses after this and her expression showed it. "My mother is the only person who has been prepared to work with me, to utilize these abilities. I genuinely think they can be of enormous help, a massive selling point. I won't let us down" With a raise of her eyebrow she asked if he thought they should try again, with her changing the angle this time?

Take another bite. It'll be alright. What's wrong will soon feel right.
Take another sip, let it kiss your lips, and let a little drip on your thighs.

[Theo Nji'Ryn]

The eye connection, so far as the mirror was concerned, was broken as Zana climbed off the bed and positioned herself in front of him. Still eye to eye, but the broken connection meant that the crippling cold was seeping from his body already. Theo didn't realize it yet, it had been a shock, and as she tugged the blanket round his shoulders he smiled, after a fashion though his teeth were chattering and he was trembling head to toe. She looked worried. Was it him she was worried about, he wondered? Or was it that she thought he might end their agreement no sooner than it had begun?

Faint traces of orange color swirled through his eyes, and even scanter evidence of white that had dominated just a few trills before. Theo managed a grin when she mentioned her previous handler and what had happened to him. "I'm assuming it wasn't an arctic freeze you put on him," he said dryly. Seemed not, considering the way that she'd phrased an experience that had rendered the man unconscious.

"No, it's not what I meant," he said, when finally he was able to relax and his temperature seemed more in sync with his surroundings. He wasn't passing her on. Too much, too fast meant exactly that, although Theo had a mind that was always considering the possibilities. And what he'd just experienced could also be used to advantage. Hers, and his. Nevertheless, she seemed no worse off from the experience. And he wasn't either, now it was done. He even laughed when surprising herself, Zana mentioned it had been pleasurable. "Well I'm happy I was able to oblige," he said dryly.

So would it work? Bouncing the reflection off reflective several surfaces in order to adjust the effect? Make it more subtle, isolate it, cause it to come on more slowly? Theo had no idea, but he agreed that it seemed logical. More than that. "If it can work that way," he suggested, "it might make it more versatile. In a room with several mirrors, you might be able to do it from a greater distance." Whether that was the case or not, now he was warmed up to normal and the blanket shrugged off, he was content with her trying again.

[Zana]

16th Ymiden, 717

"I can only enhance what you're already experiencing, remember?" Zana's expression was rather wry as he asked about her one previous time using this ability. White was new and was probably something negative, she thought, or was surprise maybe. However, his eyes had been orange before. "It was my first time using it and I didn't think it would be so.." her hand gestured, physically almost searching for the word, "overwhelming? All encompassing? Who knew that there is such a thing as too much of a good thing?" She quipped about it, smiled even, but when Jaq had passed her on after eleven arcs together, she had been hurt and the smile didn't reach her eyes.

His laugh at her realization of it being a pleasant and pleasurable experience pulled her back from her reminiscence, though and Zana grinned at him. "A working girl has to get her kicks where she can, you know." She was pleased, much more pleased than she could say that he was prepared to work with her and what she could do. Throughout her life she had maintained that, if her handler was not prepared to work with her on these abilities, to make it part of their trial-by-trial work the two of them, then she would not use them alone. If Peter wasn't prepared to help her learn, then she wasn't prepared to put herself in a place where she used them for his benefit. That was about as close to a moral stand as Zana ever got; she wasn't going to use any of her skills and abilities unless she got something back from the use.

The idea of a room with several mirrors was intriguing and not something that she'd thought of, but it made sense. Zana nodded as she considered it and then dismissed it as a possibility for the moment. First she had to get some kind of control over it, before she started flashing it around in crowds if she ever got there.

He had shrugged off the blanket and Zana stood, moving to behind him again. Kneeling on the bed she waited until he had the ice cube in the glass ready to go then she rested her chin on his shoulder and smiled. "Ready?" As he put his finger on the ice cube again she saw the cold, just the touch of it but this time she held it for a trill, just held it there and when she washed him with it, she did so by reflecting it at a different angle.

The result was dramatically different.

It was all over him, still, but it was a chill which he experienced. Not the freezing cold, icy and overwhelming sensation, but a definite chill. Zana pulled her eyes away and again, she let out a small gasp but this was not the sound of a woman who was enjoying a sensation. She stayed kneeling on the bed this time and lowered her head into her hands with a groan. "Was it different for you?" Zana asked in a whispered voice.

Lifting her head, the difference for her became apparent before she said anything. Her eyes were bloodshot, both of them, extremely so, and she held a hand to her temple. "I tried," she whispered, "to make it less cold. I didn't try different parts of your body or specific parts like a chill up your back. I just tried to make it less cold." The pounding in her head meant that her voice was quiet. She narrowed her eyes against the light in the room, but waited to see if she'd managed it.

I'll be your dream, I'll be your wish, I'll be your fantasy
I'll be your hope, I'll give you love, be everything that you need.

[Theo Nji'Ryn]

Clearly, based on her expression and the way she spoke about it, the loss or rather rejection of her former handlers, including Peter, was hurtful to her. Theo could sympathize, and yet he also understood the other side of the equation. He'd told her before. Very few people cared for the sense of control being taken out of their hands. Even just a little. Even if they'd previously agreed to it. It took a strong personality and sense of self to give it over freely and then not shrink away or resent it when it was done. As a man he understood it even more.

He wouldn't claim that he was a better man than them however. Only that he trusted in her motives so long as she didn't give him any reason not to, and he could see the potential in her abilities. She couldn't develop or control them without someone willing to help her. Naturally she'd redefined the job description than had been his understanding when he'd come to the role. But once agreed, Theo was committed and not one quick to go back on his word.

Zana had climbed on the bed behind him once again, he'd dipped two fingers into the glass and cradled an ice cube in them and this time the experience was quite different. Instead of the previous onslaught of cold that had shocked his system, this was a chill that crept upon him slowly and for lack of a better word, it was frankly chilling. And yet Theo smiled. Yes, it could be more focused, more refined, but it was more in line with what he'd suggested before.

"It was different. Very different, and much like I'd hoped," Theo said before he perceived the change in her voice or turned round to look at her. When he did however, he could immediately see what the effort had cost her? She'd warned him this might happen, but had he pushed her too hard already? He frowned, getting up off the bed and walking to to the dresser to get her a glass of water. No ice, just room temperature and he returned to the bed and handed it to her to sip.

It was enough for this trial, he told her. She shouldn't push it any further and she should rest. Urging her to lie down, Theo dimmed the lamps in the room and pulled the curtains shut, before taking the blanket she'd draped round his shoulders before and laying it over her. "Rest. There's time, and pushing too hard too fast won't do anyone any good," he told her. Then once Theo made sure that Zana was alright and that there was nothing more he could do, he quietly left the room to allow her to rest.

[Incubus]

Theo

Knowledge

Acting: Setting up a scenario
Acting: Stepping in as understudy
Acting: Costumes
Business Management: Understanding all aspects of a business
Business Management: Being prepared to step in for a missing employee
Business Management: You need to understand what your girls can do
Endurance: Extreme cold
Psychology: Perception is reality
Psychology: Some people get comfort from touch

Delroth: Immortal of Winds, Birds, Vanity and Greed
Zana: Mortalborn domains of Air, Reflection and Attachment
Zana: Mortalborn ability: Breath of life
Zana: Mortalborn ability: Trinket of desire
Zana: Mortalborn ability: Reflected experience

Loot: N/A
Injuries: N/A
Fame: N/A
Devotion: N/A

Points: 15

Zana

Knowledge
Caregiving: Wrapping in a blanket
Caregiving: Hugging to keep warm.
Cosmetology: Long clothes can still be revealing
Detection: Lean in close to ascertain eye colour
Endurance: Sudden onset migraines
Etiquette: Always maintain a physical relationship with your handler
Etiquette: Check if tactile contact is acceptable
Persuasion: Some people are persuaded by the truth
Seduction: Greet with a kiss

Mortalborn Ability: Reflected Experience: Imparting cold
Mortalborn Ability: Reflected Experience: Change the angle of reflection
Mortalborn Ability: Reflected Experience: Causes migraine
Theo: Raised by a single mother in the Dust Quarter

Loot: N/A
Injuries: N/A
Fame: N/A
Devotion: N/A

Points: 15

Comments: "You don't survive the mean streets of the Dust Quarter by being thin skinned." I'VE MANAGED LIVING IN THE GHETTO JUST FINE, THANK YOU.

Also, this thread gave me weird chills while reading it. I don't know if this was intended or not. LOL
I liked it, though! Nice writing folks!